Pinwheel Rainbow Cake

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Looking for a fun and colorful cake recipe? Try our Pinwheel Rainbow Cake recipe for your next birthday party or special celebration. Using our Classic White Cake recipe and our Creamy White Frosting recipe, you can easily create an eye-catching rainbow cake with just a few added drops of color.

Rainbow Pinwheel Cake
Photo: Blaine Moats
Prep Time:
1 hrs 15 mins
Bake Time:
50 mins
Cool Time:
2 hrs
Total Time:
1 hrs 15 mins
Servings:
10

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe Classic White Cake

  • Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple paste food colorings

  • ½ recipe Creamy White Frosting or one 16-ounce can vanilla frosting

  • Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple jimmies

Classic White Cake

  • 4 egg whites

  • 2 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • ½ teaspoon baking soda

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • ½ cup butter or shortening, softened

  • 1 ¾ cup sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 1 ⅓ cup buttermilk or sour milk

Creamy White Frosting

  • 1 cup shortening

  • 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

  • ½ teaspoon almond extract

  • 4 cup powdered sugar

  • 3 tablespoon milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and lightly flour a 9-inch springform pan that has a removable bottom or two 8x1 1/2-inch round cake pans. Prepare batter for Classic White Cake as directed, except divide batter among six bowls. Tint each bowl of batter a different color using food colorings.

  2. For springform pan, spoon red batter into center of pan. Spoon orange batter into center of red batter, allowing red batter to spread out. Spoon yellow batter over orange batter and so on with the green, blue, and purple batters. Gently shake pan back and forth until batters are evenly spread in pan. Bake about 50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove sides of pan; invert cake onto another wire rack, remove bottom of pan, and cool cake completely. (For 8-inch round cake pans, add red, orange, and yellow batters to one pan and add green, blue, and purple batters to second pan as directed above. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.)

  3. Frost the top and sides of springform cake with Creamy White Frosting (if using cake layers, spread frosting between layers before frosting top and sides of cake).

  4. Sprinkle wedge-shape sections on top and sides of cake with different colors of jimmies, pressing them onto the sides with a spoon.**

Classic White Cake

  1. Allow egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grease and lightly flour two 9x1-1/2-inch or 8x1-1/2-inch round cake pans or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set pan(s) aside. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

  2. Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pan(s).

  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes for 9-inch pans or 30 to 35 minutes for 8-inch pans or 13x9x2-inch pan, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center(s) comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans. Cool thoroughly on racks. Or place the 13x9x2-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting

Creamy White Frosting

  1. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening, vanilla, and almond extract with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar. Gradually add milk until frosting reaches a spreading consistency. Makes about 3 cups.

*Tip:

If you make two 8-inch cake layers, you'll need more than 1/2 recipe of frosting.

**Tip

Working with one wedge-shape section at a time, gently place strips of waxed paper on both sides of wedge. Fill section with jimmies. Move the paper strips when you're ready to add another section of jimmies.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

583 Calories
24g Fat
90g Carbs
5g Protein
Nutrition Facts
Servings Per Recipe 10
Calories 583
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 24g 31%
Saturated Fat 9g 45%
Cholesterol 26mg 9%
Sodium 356mg 15%
Total Carbohydrate 90g 33%
Total Sugars 67g
Protein 5g
Vitamin C 0.3mg 2%
Calcium 83mg 6%
Iron 1.3mg 7%
Potassium 106mg 2%
Fatty acids, total trans 2g
Folate, total 48.4mcg
Vitamin B-12 0.1mcg
Vitamin B-6 0mg

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

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